External hard drive not recognized... Partition table?

[Ivo]

Hi all,

now it is my turn to have external hard drive problems again.
While using it today, I wasn't able to safely remove it. I decided to shutdown Win 7 before unplugging it because I don't like pulling the USB out without safely removing, but apparently that wasn't enough as after turning the PC back on and plugging it in, I got the "you need to format before using" message.

So as apparently nothing serious happened to the drive I am pretty sure I should be able to recover the stuff in the drive, so I don't want to format.

I think (but I am no expert) that the partition table got messed up, and I am currently trying TestDisk to recover it, but my first pass at it, while apparently detecting the partition (without the deeper scan) did not work. Currently at over 30% of the deeper scan to see if that helps.

Any other advice on what to do to get the files back?
Ivo.

[o.pwuaioc]

It's usually just fine to unplug a USB flash drive or external hdd without ejecting it, but not if something is using it or if you're transferring files or something like that.

As to your problem, sometimes rebooting and trying again or plugging and unplugging it will work, but sometimes the latter can damage it if there really is a problem. If you want to be on the safe side, burn Knoppix to a blank CD and run it. From there try to open up your external HDD through Knoppix. If you can, you can recover your files. You can actually find your regular hard drive through Knoppix as well, and from there your Desktop. Create a folder, move files, and voila, you have them on your computer. Don't put them on the Knoppix desktop, though, as the OS is temporary and all files created through it or saved to it will be dumped afterward.

[sonic2041]

Is it a western digital external drive? my brother says there are a lot of problems with those and you are probably screwed unless you want to move the platters to a new drive.

But the file table is most likely gone. Use something like Get Data Back NTFS and use it to rebuild the file table, and transfer the data to a new drive. Once you recover your data, do not reuse the external drive because this will most likely happen again because hardware is probably failing.

[o.pwuaioc]

Is it a western digital external drive? my brother says there are a lot of problems with those and you are probably screwed unless you want to move the platters to a new drive.

But the file table is most likely gone. Use something like Get Data Back NTFS and use it to rebuild the file table, and transfer the data to a new drive. Once you recover your data, do not reuse the external drive because this will most likely happen again because hardware is probably failing.

While this can be the case, it's by no means likely. I had a crappy external that did this all the time. It was flimsy and I bet the disk wasn't secured inside, but it is by no means certain. For my case, opening it up in Linux and removing some corrupted files fixed the only crippling problem I had with it, and then when it said that it needed to be reformatted unplugging it and plugging it back in (often while tilting the damn thing ) usually fixed the problem. Funny thing, too, about WD's, is that I switched from the crappy one I had (can't remember even what brand it was) to a WD I noticed a remarkable improvement in sturdiness. I've had my WD for almost a year now with absolutely no problems at all. I suppose it could have been luck of the draw.

[sonic2041]

Yeah, I have nothing against WD. I use them almost exclusively for internal drives, but mainly the REs. I know for a while there were hardware problems with the some of the consumer drives.

I was originally going to recommend unplugging it and plugging it back in to a different USB post but saw you already recommended that. I know that has worked for a few flash drives I have.

[Ivo]

Hi,

different USB ports was the first thing I tried.

It is not a WD, it is a very rugged A-DATA SH93 and internally it seems to have a Toshiba.

After the deeper scan from TestDisk finished last night I got the "FileSystem seems damaged" message when tried to check the structure of the partition it found (the one that had been found with the quick search already).

Tried Get Data Back NTFS and it finds the partition but no data inside it

I will try getting a linux boot of Parted Magic but I am no longer hopeful of recovering the data.

[o.pwuaioc]

Aw, dude, sorry to hear about that.

[ExedExes]

I don't know much about external hard drives, but if you are able to make an image of it (or in the near future if you get it to work again) you can get the special WD edition of Acronis True Image from WD's site.

I too like WD's drives. I remember getting a Caviar 2.1GB drive for my Pentium 75, and my laptop currently has a WD drive.

[Bagel]

I will try getting a linux boot of Parted Magic but I am no longer hopeful of recovering the data.

They make windows installs for linux now, just do that

[Duane Dibbley]

As long as the disk is still spinning and the heads are still reading, you should be able to recover most/all of your data. I haven't done it myself, but it should be possible. There is no way you lost all of your data just by unplugging the disk without unmounting it first. The file system being damaged just refers to the small chunk of metadata at the front of the disk that tells your OS where all of the files are located.

On the other hand, if the disk is clicking and whirring, then your chances of recovering anything are much less likely.